As a LONGTIME Rox fan I can safely say that we have some of the most impatient (and ignorant) fans in the planet. Seriously. Did JVG step on Yao's toe? You think he's been pinching T-Mac in the back while nobody's looking? I see a coach teaching fundaments to a class that's half-full of children that refuse to grow up and be accountable. The other half of the class is either injured or just can't make the grades. Please tell me a coach who could turn a winning team having to rely on significant contributions from Ryan Bowen, Wesley, Strom, DA and/or the Mooch. For awhile our biggest scorer/playmaker out there was . . . Juwan Howard? Or maybe David Wesley? Who cares. You can't tell me that the team he's put out on the floor is anywhere near ready to be an elite NBA team - even a marginal NBA team. So with the main weapons back (albeit one still obviously injured) they lost all of 1 game and baby fans start their crying again. If they beat the Clips, do you crybabies shut up . . . again?
This is so far from reality it really is amazing. 1. He chose T-Mac. The rest of the "old guys" were as good as we could get and took Dallas to Game 7 last year. Not bad. 2. He doesn't play a "grinding style". He asks the guys to push the ball up and they haven't had players that are able to do that - since Sura went down. Raefer is starting to shine though. He needs help out there. No doubt that with their injuries Yao and T-Mac are not running the court like they should. 3. HE TOOK YOUNG PLAYERS. That's exactly what Raefer and Head are and he plays the crap out of them. He also plays a young guy in Stro that doesn't appear to be mature enough for the spot. If anything, he instincts on older players have proven out somewhat. We do need experience and leadership out there other than the injured superstars. 4. The year he went to the finals, the Knicks were known for having the ultimate SLOW DOWN offense. Seriously, the series with the Rox was a classic defensive slugfest. Did you watch it? 5. Yao is having his most successful year to date under JVG and is starting to justify his selection as the All Star starter. All that despite sitting out a big portion of the season with an injury. Yao is in better shape, playing better fundamental basketball than anyone on the team. If JVG doesn't mesh with Yao, why is Yao playing at such a high level?
I am personally getting tired of JVG and his lack of offense. Dont you remember when we were high scoring last season it was in spite of JVG not because of him. He mentioned how he felt uncomfortable with us pushing the ball and running fast breaks but he trusted our players so he left them alone. He also acknowledges that he gave Tmac the freedom to do whatever. For some reason this season he is back to micromanaging the team every possesion and it seems to be wearing down his players. partly due to age / injury but alot of it has to do with him not playing to the strength of his players. With Tmac / Yao out does he change the strategy? No I admit JVG brought discipline and defense to a team that needed it (SF3 / Cat / MoT / Cato) but now our players have changed and JVG needs to adjust. J
Can you give me the link to the quote where JVG said he felt uncomfortable with us pushing the ball up and running fast breaks.... T-mac still has the freedom to do as he likes but the shots haven't been falling for the last couple of games, he's hardly been handcuffed just look at the number of shots he's putting up, they're just not falling.
I can totally understand JVG's coaching style rubbing fans the wrong way, but it seems to me like a lot of you forget that Yao/T-Mac (the foundation of this ream) have played 20 games together. Correct me if I'm wrong, but we are 13-7 with the two of them in the lineup. That equates, over an 82 game season, to a 53 win season. I don't think that any coach could have had the players that we did (without T-Mac and Yao) and have done much better...
Although the poll is scored about even between like/dislike, notice that 65% of the fanbase of this BBS is somewhere between indifferent and hates him. That is a very significant percentage of fans that are increasingly uncomfortable with JVG running the Rox show. If I was Les, I would look very carefully at these numbers and compare them with the P&L. It would not take long to figure the correllation. I am not thinking TMac is tanking YET, but I think he is getting awfully close to pulling an Orlando on the Rockets. There is an eerie similarity between actions and results.
Yeah, T-mac gave up on the team while they were on a winning streak.....or is it more probable that he's hurting and is in a shooting slump as a result....
i would love a quote for that because i think that's a flat out lie. van gundy wants the rockets to push the ball up and get as many easy baskets as possible. he probably would love that more than anybody on this bbs. it's bullsh!t to say we slow down our offense because of him but then when it's going good it's in spite of him? i don't think so.
Get off of JVG's case people, he is an excellent coach he has proved that in his like 13 years as a coach, 9 straight winning seasons, apperance in the finals, and shown major dedication when he was clinging to the ankles of whoever that was during that fight(cant remember right now, i know someone will correct me). The guy knows what he is doing and is doing the best with the peices he has right now. I like him, i think he is a great basketball mind, and a great teacher of the game, he has come around as far as what to do with tmac and yao and so on. I believe when the right peices finally come together this trio will win a champ.
He may not be averse to getting easy baskets, but he most certainly plays a slow-down game. His sets take forever to develop, with a lot of screens and reversals. And what annoys me the most is when Yao gets position right away, but they swing it around to the other side, so Yao can post up there. That happens waaaaay too much to be a coincidence. It has to be part of the gameplan and it pisses me off to no end. Plus all the Pick and Rolls have been practically useless this year. Most of the league has realized that you can't stop quality penetrators one-on-one, so all you have to do is clear out and let your best guards go to work. We on the other hand run P/R after P/R which only serves to get Alston and Mcgrady trapped 30 ft from the basket. I'm also beginning to think that last year's offensive success was despite JVG, and not because of him.
1. The guys outside of Yao and TMac last year: Barry, Sura, Wesley, Mutombo all are players on the downslope of their careers. Howard's injury gave the matchup with Dirk to Bowen and TMac. Mike James gave a spark to the squad, but TOs and shot selection doomed him under Jeff... I'll forget about Ward, Weatherspoon or Oakley... Those old guys were not as good as we could get. With two players taking in max salaries, getting complimentary players when their stock is low is commonplace... But my problem is that Jeff picks aging veterans who have no where to go but down instead of younger players who would benefit from a disciplined coach that Jeff supposedly is. 2. The guy intentionally slows down the game, plays trick defensive schemes involving lots of energy and positioning, and runs a fixed rotation of 8-9 unless injuries forces him to adjust. 3. Sura would be starting now... No one expected how Stro's season turned out, so JuHo is playing more minutes. Even though his durability is what made Stro's acquisition so exciting... Mutumbo wasn't intended to replace Yao, so Hayes and Baxter were thrown in the fire. Skip is older than Mike James. 4. No, I didn't watch the 2 regular season games they played against each other in the lockout year.... I had a picture of the Knicks playing much smoother without Ewing that year, but you're right... their offense was slow and ugly. 5. Agree or disagree: Yao could play better with a different coach, or a coach that doesn't make him set picks all the time....
What young players could the Rocks have gotten in exchange for scrub players responsible for a 21 win season?
I personally like the guy. However, sometimes certain players mesh better with certain coaches. You do have to admire him on defense, but trying to watch his offense at work is like sitting through a bad Chuck Norris movie. I have to wonder if maybe we would be better suited with an offensive minded coach. Lets face it, the strength of our best players is offense. Neither one is gonna be that defensive stopper. Cant say that he is really utilizing the strengths of our team... especially on the offensive end.
If I had all the free time in the world I still wouldn't go through all the JVG quotes from last year. * if someone else remembers during one of winning streaks, when our offense just took. JVG likes us to bring the ball up quickly, jump into our sets, control the possesion. Do you watch the Rox at all on TV? We rarely get easy baskets in the JVG era. Why would I bother lying? BigM why dont you do us a favor and think before you post.
I agree he does say bring the ball up as fast as possible and call a play right away and if you dont have a shot pass it. Thats his idea of running. There is a reason this team sucks in the fastbreak dept, and he has players that can run in that type of system, but wont even implement beyond the high screen and roll that causes traps each time.
I like JVG. His job is thankless though. The minute the Rockets lose, it's back to the same old routine of JVG sucks and JVG can't coach, etc. But when we win, oh, T-Mac did it, Yao did it, someone other than JVG helped us win that game. (Yeah sometimes it looks like T-Mac is the only reason JVG isn't unemployed). JVG has no restrictions on T-Mac's play, his shot choice, his in-game choices, etc. He wants the other people to uniform around T-Mac, including Yao, which if you haven't noticed, would always be our 2nd option. He made that screen-roll with Yao and McGrady work everytime (once Yao caught the ball). He wanted those 2 players, and a bunch of veteran, spot up shooters. He got them, but so did injuries. Good coaches demand discipline, and he hasn't missed he playoffs yet, doesn't matter what your players/fans think. He's a stickler, he's stubborn, he's set in stone, and the players, hate it or love it, have to deal with it. Tracy McGrady is not the weak, lazy, insubordinate player people thought he was. He hasn't complained once, hasn't whined once, he's playing with some stiffness in his back, tendinitis in his knees, and a still smarting nose. That, and he's just in a funk. Has he had a problem with Yao's shot selection so far since he's been back? Yao has been taking whatever he wants, he's just not getting them to drop, which will change once the conditioning is back. I might be wrong, but I think this weekend, T-Mac will get out of his slump and Yao will only get stronger, and the 2 will mesh like they used to. The role-players will role play, and the stars will shine. Rockets will win both games, and whether we make the playoffs or not, this will be the start of a strong (but not perfect) run...and you gotta love our chances next season, plus the supposed trades on the way. Why were we 7th best in the league last season, even after the slow start?
